Cornet



No. 620,450. Patented Feb. 28, |899.

J. HEALD.

CORNET.

(Appumon med sept. 14, 189s.)l (No Mudd.)

afg w ZZ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

.IOIIN IIEALD, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

CORNET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 620,450, dated February 28, 1899.

Application tiled September 14, 1898. Serial No. 690,932. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern):

Be it known that I, JOHN HEALD, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of l\Iassacliusetts,have invented certain new and. useful Improvements in Cornets and SimilarInstruments, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to improvements in cornets, trombones, and analogous musical instruments, and more particularly to devices comprised as a part of the instrument or as a substitute appliance therein for changing at pleasure the key of the instrument, either a semitone or a full tone, so that, for instance, in a cornet by the manipulation of the device the instrument may be changed from a B-fiat to an A cornet ,and also for tuning the instrument, more especially when it is employed in a band or orchestra, so that it will harmonize with the other instruments in company with which it is played. p The objects of the invention are to provide in the cornet or analogous instrument animproved device for the purposes mentioned which is comparatively simple and inexpen sive of construction, durable, applicable in a convenient place on the instrument, whereby it may be utilized with facility and entire e'fiiciency, and which is in no way unsightly or obtrusive in appearance; and to these ends the invention consists in the provision at the place of and to constitute a suitable one of the return-bends of the cornet, trombone, or similar instrument of a double tubular slide to constitute a key-changing and tuning device, and, furthermore, to the particular construction of part-s, all substantially as will be hereinafter described, and set forth in the claims.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which;-

Figure l is a side view of the cornet, having thereon the compound slide device for keychanging and tuning the instrument. Fig. 2 is a sectional View longitudinally through the double slide device which constitutes the key-chan ging and instrument-tunin g device. Fig. 3 is aplan or top edge view of Fig. 2.

(movement.

' In the drawings, A represents the leading tube of the cornet, with which the shank a and mouthpiece a2 are connected, the same as usual in cornets, comprising between the mouthpiece end thereof and the piston-tubes B several return-bends, (indicated at l, 2', and

In a cornet the most convenient and practicable place of location of the present combined key-changing and tuning slide is at the second bend 2,said device comprising as a part thereof a U-shaped tubular portion, which constitutes the return-bend required at the said point 2 for joining the parallel tube-sections d and d2. The ends 6 of said sections d and cl2 of the leading tube which are toward the mouthpiece are open, and said tubes are of uniform diameter.

The improved key-changing and tuning device consists of the pair of parallel tubes ff, open from end to end, being of uniform diameter externally and internally and adapted to have a close though comparatively free slid ing iit within the tube-sections d d2, said pair of parallel tubes f f being united by the cross-bar f2, formed asa part of or affixed to the outer end portion of said paired tubes, together with the parallel tubular members g g, united by the intermediate U-shaped tubular portion g2, the said parallel tubular members g g being endwise open and having a close though comparatively free sliding fit in the tube members ff.

The upper one of the tubular slide members g has projecting rearwardly from its outer end portion the lug h, rigidly support-l ing the rod i, which constitutes a guide-stem and thumlrabutment, the length of said rod being parallel with the length of the said tubes ff, its extension being endwise toward the mouthpiece end of the instrument.

The inner slide members g g, near the junction therewith of the uniting tubular bowed portion g2, are provided with the annular shoulders g3, and from the upper one of these shoulders is provided the rearwardly-extended lug j, having the perforation jz, through which the guide-stem i has relatively a slide The end of the said rod fi has provided thereon the enlarged thumb-piece, which is constituted by the head k of a screw,

IOO

the shank 7a2 of which screws into an axial tapped hole therefor in the other end of the rod.

In order to combine the inner U-shaped slide, comprising the tubular parallel legs or sections g g, with the tubular slide members ff, with the rod i in its sliding engagement through the lugj, the screw and th umh-piece 7,32 l; is first removed, and after the parts are assembled replaced. The part 7s, which constitutes the thumb-piece, also constitutes a stop for limiting the outward movement of the U-shaped slide.

The tube members ff and g g, the one fitting within the other and both within the cornet tube-section d d?, are comparatively thin, so as not to obstruct the freedom of the windpassage, and they are, moreover, comparatively long, and in practice in cornets which I have constructed for commercial purposes I have made the legs of the slide members so that they may enter the tube-sections d d2 about two and one-fourth inches and have so located the thumb-piece, which constitutes the abutment, to limit the outward draft of the inner U-shaped slide, so that the latter may be drawn out one and Iive-eighths in ches.

Assuming that the cornet is, when the U- shaped slide g g g2 is in its innermost position, with its stop-shoulders g3 in abutment against the ends of the slide-tubes f f, adapted for the production of given tones or keys-as, for instance, those based on B-flat-then by drawing the key-changing slide from its said innermost to its outermost position, as limited by the lugj coming against the abutment 7o, the instrument will be converted to an A cornet.

Fig. l illustrates the manner of manipulating the key-changing slide for elongating the wind-passage for lowering the key, as above mentioned, and in order to restore the instrument to a key a semitone higher the musician then compresses between the thumb and fingers the U-bend g2 and the uniting cross-bar f2, causing the key-changing slide to be returned to its innermost position within the tubular sections ff without disturbing the relations of said latter sections to the tubular cornet-sections d d2. The instrument being adjusted to key either for B-flat or A, as desired, and it is then desired to adjust the instrument to tone, so that it will be exactly in key with other instruments with which it is to be played in accompaniment, the tuningslide g g, and with it the key-slide, is moved slightly in or out to secure such variations in the tone either slightly higher or lower as will accord to the requirements and circumstances under which the instrument is to be played.

I do not limit the application of the combined key-changing and timing slide to the location at the bend 2 of the cornet, for it is possible to acquire a key-changing and timing of the instrument at one of the other :returnbends of the leading tube of the cornet; but

the place of the application of the described compound slide shown is by far the most practicable, convenient, efficient, and preferable.

The compound keychanging and tuning slide, substantially as described, may be comprised with equally satisfactory results in a trombone, either at and in part constituting the return-bend of the trombone nearer the mouthpiece or at the bend nearer the trumpet end thereof, and obviously the device is ap plicable in otherspecic types of musical wind instruments of the trumpet class.

I am aware thatit has heretofore been proposed to provide in a cornet a tuning-slide in one of the return-bends of the leading pipe and to a provide a key-changing slide at another of the returnbends thereof; but such independent arrangements of the devices I do not claim; but,

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In aoornet o'r other trumpet instrument, the combination with parallel pipe-sections thereof constructed with open outer ends, of a pair of tubular sections which are open from end to end, and adapted for longitudinal sliding movement within said first-named sections,and the pair of tube-sections,adapted for endwise-telescoping movements relative to the aforesaid endwise-movable tube-sec tions, having the uniting tubular bowed or return bent portion, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a cornet or analogous instrument, the combination with parallel tubular sections thereof as the ones d d2, having open outer ends, of the tubular sections ff open from end to end, and having a uniting-bar, and adapted for endwise movement within said irst-named tube-sections, and the tube-sections g g adapted for endwise movement within the tube-section ff, and having the uniting tubular bow-section g2, substantially as described.

3. In a cornet or analogous instrument, the combination with parallel tubular sections thereof as the ones d d2, having open outer ends, of the tubular sections f f open from end to end, and having a uniting-bar, and adapted for endwise movement within said first-named tube-sections, and the tube-sections g g adapted for endwise movement within the tube-section ff, and having the uniting tubular bow-section g2, and means for limit.- ing the inward and outward adjustments of said last-named tube-section relative to the one f f, for the purposes set forth.

4. In a cornet, the combination with paired parallel endwise open tubesections one of which is provided with a laterally-extended support 7L having an endwise-extended rod e' with a thumb-piece abutment k at its end, of a U -shaped tubular slide the parallel legs of which are fitted within the aforesaid tubesections, and one thereof having the lug j in IOO IIO

sliding and guidingr engagement with said the inward and outward movements of the rod. one slide relative to the other, substantially 5. For a cornet or analogous instrument, as described. the tuning-slide,- consisting of the parallel Signedbyme,atSpringield,Massachusetts, 5 tube members f f open from end to end, and this 9th day of September, 1898. having a transverse uniting member comi bined with the U-shaped tubular key-ohang- JOHN HEALD' ing slide, the parallel legs of which iit Within WVtnesses: said tube members ff and are movable rela- WM. S. BELLOWS, lo tively thereto, and stop devices for limiting l M. A. CAMPBELL. 

